Dance With Me
by Snafu1000
Summary: A kinkmeme de-anon. Shepard can't dance; *everybody* knows that. So what the hell is Liara up to?
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: So, I did a hard burn today to get the next chapter of 'Moments In Time' up, with the result that, come time for bed, I'm staring at the ceiling, waiting for the plot bunnies to go the fuck to sleep so I can, too._

 _Searched for something to do while waiting for the melatonin to kick in, and hit on the idea of starting to de-anon some of the stuff I've put up over on the kinkmeme, which wouldn't take too much brainpower beyond a bit of editing._

 _This'll be the first, done in response to a prompt for Liara & Shep to get together after the Reapers have been defeated. Like I said, going to make a few edits & corrections, but it shouldn't take long to get it all up (and after your patience waiting for my schedule and my muses to mesh, I thought that a quickly finished tale would be a good way to say 'thank you')._

* * *

"Liara, I can't dance." Casey Shepard stared at the image of her best friend on the vidscreen, trying her best to project the utter conviction that she felt. "You _know_ that."

"You need to get out, Shepard," the asari persisted. "You've hardly gone anywhere since you left the hospital."

"Enjoying the peace and quiet," Casey replied defensively. "I've saved the galaxy three times now; I figure I've earned some down time." Truth was, she wasn't sure exactly what to do when there wasn't a looming disaster demanding her intervention. For the last three years, she'd been dealing with the threat of the Reapers, and before that, she'd been Alliance, born and bred: raised in space and weaned on duty. She was a warrior without a war to fight; she'd never known anything else.

And the galaxy wasn't sure what to do with inactive heroes. Everyone kept telling her she should relax, take it easy, but at the same time, everybody wanted a piece of her. She'd received endorsement offers by the score, from products and politicians, most of whom she'd never heard of; the Alliance wanted her to spearhead a recruiting drive, pretend she hadn't carved out victory through countless deaths, surviving herself only through chance, tell the kids they could do it too if they just had that fighting spirit. Casey didn't know what she wanted to do, but she'd been giving serious thought to talking Joker into stealing the Normandy again and going walkabout until she figured it out.

Dancing had never entered into her plans, and for good reason, but Liara wasn't giving up.

"You don't have to dance if you don't want to, but at least come with me? I've been taking dancing lessons on the extranet, and I want to try them in public, but I don't want to go alone. I need someone to look after me."

Casey managed not to laugh _too_ hard at the idea. The shy scientist they'd rescued on Therum had come a hell of a long way. "This from the woman who flays people with her mind?"

Liara looked offended. "I've never done that!"

"But you could, right?" Shepard had seen her biotics at work during the final assault in the ruins of London; she'd never have guessed that a banshee could be bent in that many different directions.

"Theoretically, I suppose." Liara sighed, looking resigned. "I guess I could ask Grunt to go with me. He's expressed an interest in exploring nightlife on Earth."

"Grunt?" Casey blinked. She couldn't have heard that correctly. "Liara, the last time that Grunt went out, I damn near had to hock the Normandy to pay for the damages! And you want to take him _dancing_?"

"Why not?" Liara cocked her head, a challenging gleam in her eyes. "My father's father was a krogan, after all, and Grunt _is_ a genetically ideal specimen."

Shepard felt her jaw drop. Was she seriously suggesting - "No. No. No. Just...no." She screwed her eyes shut, trying to shut out a mental image that promised to ruin meals for the next week. "It's ... just a bad idea."

"So, you'll go with me, then?"

She cracked open one eye. She'd been played, hadn't she? "All right," she growled. "Just don't expect me to dance."

Liara's smile lit up her face. "Wonderful!" she said with an enthusiasm that made Shepard wonder if she'd even heard anything beyond 'All right'. "Wear the dress that Kasumi got for you."

 _Oh, come on!_ "Liara, I can barely conceal a pistol in that thing! I thought you wanted me to look after you?"

"And the gold necklace with the Thessian emeralds that Councilor Tevos gave you. They will look lovely with your eyes."

"Gold and emeralds? Are you _trying_ to get us mugged?" On the other hand, an easy fight with a bunch of punks might settle some of her restlessness.

"And the black flats."

"Dammit, I am _not dancing!"_

"Pick me up at eight!"

Damn it.

* * *

"What are you _wearing_?"

Shepard could feel her eyes bulging, but Liara just smiled at her and twirled in the doorway.

"Do you like it?" she asked innocently. "Tali helped me pick it out."

" _Tali?_ " Head-to-toe hidden by enviro-suit Tali? "Where's the rest of it?" The skirt was even shorter than the one on Shepard's dress, and above the waist was a complex crisscrossing of narrow straps that barely covered … hell, _anything_ , all of it made of leather dyed a rich fuchsia, with four-inch heels to match and a silver braided-chain necklace and bangles to complete the look. Shepard couldn't believe it. The goddamn quarian was an exhibitionist by proxy.

"The salesclerk did recommend a set of fishnet stockings, but I thought that would be a bit much," Liara mused, oblivious to Shepard choking. A faint frown touched her lips. "I did get them, though, just in case. Do you think I should put them on?"

"No!" The thought of Liara in fishnet stockings was doing odd things to her mental processes, but the sure knowledge of the way nearly every male (and more than a few females) with a pulse were going to be reacting to her friend dressed like that provoked a response that was more familiar. "Here." She swept off the N7 jacket that she'd grabbed on her way out the door and whipped it around Liara's shoulders. "It's cold out here."

"It's _August_ , Shepard." Liara whipped the coat back off, frowning as she hefted it. "And what do you have in the pockets?"

"Spare thermal clips," Shepard replied automatically and recoiled at the death glare she received. "Damn it, Liara, I'm practically naked! The last time I went out with only one gun, I wound up dodging shots from people who were much better armed! And I fell through a fish tank!"

"And you survived magnificently," Liara assured her, patting her cheek, "but I don't think we're likely to encounter another rogue Shepard clone tonight."

"You never know," Shepard said plaintively, watching as her jacket was hung over the back of a chair, out of reach. "There could be batarians, vorcha … Conrad Verner ..."

Liara sighed. "Casey, if you don't want to go ..." She trailed off, looking so crestfallen that Shepard immediately felt like an ass.

"No. No, I'm good. Let's go." She waited as Liara locked the door to her apartment, reached out as her friend stepped onto the sidewalk and slipped an arm around her shoulders, frowning as she felt a shiver run through the asari's slender frame. "You sure you don't want the coat?"

"I'm sure," Liara said firmly, leaning into her a bit. "Let's go."

In the cab, Liara gave the VI the coordinates, then scooted over until she was right next to Shepard, nudging under her arm and resting her head against Casey's shoulder. It wasn't unusual; the asari had few people that she felt truly comfortable with, and she seemed to need the physical contact even more since she had become the Shadow Broker, something to keep her grounded in the midst of the near godlike omniscience that the vast network of operatives provided and the decisions that she had to make in the use of that knowledge.

Which didn't explain why the familiar gesture should suddenly make Shepard feel antsy as hell.

She shifted, trying to dissipate some of the unexplained edginess, sniffed. "You smell … different."

She could almost hear Liara's eyes rolling. "It's perfume. Do you like it?"

"Umm … yeah. It smells nice." Spicy, sweet, with the faintest hint of flowers. The aroma was intriguing … alluring … and doing absolutely nothing to settle Shepard's jangling nerves. "How long have you been taking dancing lessons?"

"About two months," Liara replied.

Shepard did some quick mental math. "Right after I got out of the hospital?"

Liara nodded. "You didn't want to go out or do much of anything, so it was a way to occupy my time." She dropped her head. "I'm sorry, Shepard. I didn't mean -"

"It's all right," Casey replied softly. "I haven't really been..." She trailed off, staring out the window. Six months after the defeat of the Reapers, so much of London still lay in ruins; the full tally of the dead might never be known. "I don't know," she said softly. "There's nothing left to fight, no enemy to defeat. I feel like I'm lost … like there's no more reason for me to be here."

A warm hand slipped into her own, fingers interlacing. "That's not true, Casey," Liara murmured. "There's more to life than fighting."

"True," Shepard agreed wryly. "There's also arguing with idiotic politicians and being dismissed as a lunatic." She heard the bitterness in her voice, but couldn't find anything to counter it with. "They're already blaming me for the relays being broken."

"Those people are a minority," Liara said firmly, "and they'll go away completely now that the relay repairs are being completed. With Charon, Arcturus and Thessia functioning, more will follow, and bring others within FTL range."

Shepard nodded absently, still reviewing her failures in her mind. Anderson dead. More than half of Jack's students lost, along with countless others who had died to get her onto the Citadel to activate the Crucible, and when she had, the casualty count had only risen: the geth destroyed, EDI gone, the mass relays damaged, stranding trillions in systems that could not be reached by FTL travel. How many had starved to death in the last few months, trapped on worlds whose resources had been exhausted? How many more would die before the relay repairs were complete?

Gentle fingers slipped under her chin, turning her gaze away from the destruction outside the window to the worried regard of sapphire eyes. "Try to relax and enjoy yourself tonight," Liara entreated her. "Please?"

Casey nodded, wanting to please her friend. Liara had been with her every day in the hospital, trying to keep her spirits up as she fought to recover from her injuries, visited or called her every day once she was finally discharged, never seeming to mind the commander's ever increasing moodiness. She could pretend to enjoy herself for one night if it would make Liara worry less. "I will," she promised.

Liara smiled at her. "Good," she said, clasping Shepard's hand in both her own and resting it on her leg. Her bare leg, Shepard realized, wondering at the sudden prickle of fire across her skin. She'd seen Liara in less than this; they'd changed clothes in the same room on the Normandy without a second thought, so why in the hell was the feel of the asari's skin under her palm doing this to her?

"It's warm in here," she muttered, realizing suddenly that she was trapped between the side of the cab and Liara's body, with nowhere to go but out the window. Which would probably come across as rude.

"Is it?" The asari gave no indication that she planned on moving. "I hadn't noticed." Turning her head to reply, Shepard found her nose a scant inch from Liara's, blue eyes meeting her green with an unnerving intensity that had her heart racing.

 _What the hell?_ She tightened the arm around Liara's shoulder instinctively, edging them even closer together, watched Liara's eyes start to slip closed -

"Arriving at destination," the cab's VI announced.

Blue eyes popped open, and Casey could have sworn she saw a look of irritation flash across Liara's face, but then it was gone, and the asari was scooting away, tugging at her hand as she stepped out of the cab.

"Come on," she urged, and Shepard followed, trying to figure out if she was relieved or disappointed at the sudden space between them.


	2. Chapter 2

"What is this place?" Shepard asked, glancing around warily at the crowd that was lined up at the entrance. The building itself was a single-story structure with the exterior awash in brightly colored lights and the pulsing beat of the music within audible at street level; this was one of the areas where most of the rubble had been cleared away and the majority of the structures remained largely intact. At night, when you couldn't see too far, it looked like nothing had happened. Which, Shepard figured, was a large part of its appeal.

"Just a dance club," Liara replied. "Jack told me about it; she said it was too quiet for her."

"Figures." There didn't appear to be any ongoing brawls, at least. Fleets from nearly every species in Citadel space had participated in the titanic battle in the Sol system, and the survivors had been stranded there when the Crucible had knocked the mass relays offline. They had begun to filter out once the Charon and Arcturus relays had connected, but there were still several million aliens on Earth. The patrons here looked to be mostly human, however … and nearly all of them were staring at Liara.

 _Crap._ Just what she needed: a bunch of horny Earthborn who still believed the tired stereotype that all asari were sex machines and a best friend who had dressed the part. On the upside, no one seemed to recognize the legendary Commander Shepard without her armor and wearing a dress. Between that and the extremely high probability that she'd wind up punching more than one idiot tonight, things were looking up.

She had resigned herself to what looked to be at least an hour's wait in line, but Liara towed her straight for the door, speaking in a low voice to a bouncer who could have been Vega's body double. The lunk listened to the asari, gave Shepard a surprised double-take, then stepped aside.

"Go on in, Commander."

"Keep it down," she growled at him. If the damn press showed up, she was leaving and Liara could dance the night away with Khalisah al-Jilani.

"Will do, ma'am," he said, refusing the credits she offered him. "Corporal Adam Tate, 415th Brigade. I've got your back."

"Thanks, Corporal," she said quietly, touched by the promise and feeling a bit more secure in the knowledge that she'd have at least one more marine to back her up if things went to hell.

"I'm surprised he even recognized me," she remarked as she followed Liara inside. "I don't look much like the vids any more." It was more than the dress. She'd lost weight in the hospital, and diet and exercise hadn't brought her all the way back yet. The thick, red hair that had almost been a trademark had been shaved to treat the injuries she had sustained during the final battle; it had grown out into an unruly mop, too short to tie back and too long to comb down. At least she'd healed without major scarring; the medical teams had busted their asses on that minor miracle.

"You look beautiful," Liara replied, leading her to the bar, turning and reaching up to brush a stray lock of hair away from her forehead. Blue fingers trailed down her cheek, dropping to trace the curve of the necklace, lingering over the emeralds. "You should dress like this more often."

"What for?" Shepard shrugged, trying to ignore the electric tingles pulsing along her skin wherever the asari's fingertips touched.

"I'm not a good enough reason?" Sapphire eyes watched her, the challenge in them mixed with something else that Shepard couldn't quite interpret.

"I'm here, aren't I?" she replied gruffly. There were only a few other people that she'd have let drag her out, and even fewer that she'd let talk her into a dress that only let her conceal a single pistol.

The smile that Liara gave her was a little sad. "Yes, you are," she said softly, turning away before Shepard could ask her what was wrong. "Would you like a drink?"

"Sounds good." If she was going to feel this strange while she was stone cold sober, she might as well add alcohol. She watched Liara lean across the bar to speak with the bartender (who hastily averted his eyes from the asari's cleavage when he saw Shepard glaring at him), and wasn't surprised when the shot glass that was set before her was filled with her preferred brand of tequila; Liara did know her well. She lifted the glass to her lips and downed the contents, liquid fire rolling smoothly down her throat and spreading in her belly. She set the glass on the bar, signaled for a refill, and only then noticed the blue liquid that Liara was downing.

She blinked. "Did you just drink _ryncol_?"

"Yes." Liara set the empty glass down and turned to her. "I _am_ one-quarter krogan, after all."

Casey eyed her suspiciously. "I thought that wasn't how it worked?"

"The genetic code is a part of my makeup," Liara replied, pointing at her glass until the bartender topped it off again, then tossing it back as quickly as she had the first. "And given who my father is, a tolerance for ryncol seems likely to have been included in the selected genes."

Knowing Aethyta, Shepard wouldn't be surprised, but she also had a strong suspicion as to what the matriarch's reaction would be to the knowledge that Shepard was helping her daughter get drunk in a human bar. A headbutt would be the least of her problems.

"Oooh!" Liara's eyes widened, and she swayed visibly before giving Shepard a goofy grin. "I _like_ ryncol!" she announced happily, waving her hand and pointing at her empty glass again.

Casey stared at her, feeling a distinct sinking sensation in her gut. "I thought you came here to dance?" she said, placing a restraining hand on her friend's wrist as she reached for ryncol shot number three, her own shot of tequila forgotten.

The tipsy grin turned into a sultry smile that made the warmth of the alcohol in Shepard's belly flare unexpectedly into a small bonfire. "Oh, I'm going to dance, Commander," she purred, slipping her hand from under Shepard's and tipping her head back to drink. She set the empty glass down and stepped close, the swell of her breasts pressing against Casey's arm. "I don't suppose you'd care to dance with me?"

Shepard swallowed hard and glanced at her shot glass, wondering if she had inadvertently downed a worm in her first drink. Things were getting more surreal by the second. "Nope." She shook her head. "You wanted me to look after you, so I'll just stay here and – um – look." God, that sounded wrong … didn't it?

"Please do." Liara pressed even closer for a dizzying second, then stepped back. "I suppose I'll have to find a partner, then." Turning, she sauntered unsteadily down the line of the bar. Eyes turned to follow her.

"I'm impressed," the bartender murmured. "Never saw anyone who wasn't a krogan take more than one shot without doubling over and heaving their guts up."

"She's one-quarter krogan," Shepard muttered absently, her mind occupied by trying to put everyone in Liara's general vicinity into a threat tier so she'd know who to take out first.

"No shit?" The bartender looked at her as though unsure if she was bullshitting him, then turned to stare after the asari. "She wants you," he offered in a matter-of-fact way.

"What?" Shepard looked at him sharply. "No. She's just a friend." She felt her fingers curl into a fist as the asari approached a muscular blonde guy that was looking at her like she was a steak dinner, but Liara passed him by, leaving him to glare at her back. Shepard immediately put him at the top of her list.

"Yeah, right," the bartender snorted. "If I had a 'friend' that was that friendly, I'd -" He broke off, swallowing nervously as cold green eyes fixed on him.

"Do not finish that thought," Shepard said in a flat tone, draining the shot glass and setting it aside. "Water," she ordered curtly, dismissing the tempting thought of a fortifying third shot … and maybe a fourth. She was going to need her wits about her tonight, it seemed, because apparently, Liara had lost her damned mind.


	3. Chapter 3

She drained half of the ice water that was set on the bar, rolling the cool glass against her forehead as she watched Liara chatting animatedly with a trio of very attentive young men. Amid the laughs, more shots were delivered, with admiring cheers as the asari downed still more ryncol. One, two … fuck … _three_ shots?

"I don't care if she's half krogan," the bartender told Casey. "Any more of those, and she's gonna be in a different world."

Shepard shrugged, trying to hide her worry. "She's an adult," she replied as she watched the quartet weave their way onto the dance floor. "I'll make sure nobody takes advantage of her, but if she's going to pull this crap, she can damn well live with the hangover." And oh, was Shepard going to make sure that the asari lived with every vivid minute of it. Did Liara's apartment have a fire alarm?

"She do this often?" he wanted to know.

"First time," Shepard replied morosely.

He made a thoughtful noise, and she looked at him suspiciously. "Just wondering what might have brought it on," he said. "There's usually a reason."

Casey snorted. "She's spent the last four years trying to warn the galaxy about a danger nobody believed in, fighting an enemy that nobody thought we could beat. She watched her mother die, saw her homeworld in flames." Helped bring her best friend back from the dead, then got stuck on a backwater planet after said best friend trashed the galaxy's primary means of long-range transport. "I'd say she's earned the right to cut loose a bit."

He nodded. "But there's loose, and then there's … _loose_." He tilted his head toward the dance floor. She turned her head to follow the gesture and felt her jaw unhinge.

 _Mother … of … god!_

She'd seen asari dancers in Chora's Den and Afterlife; during the maiden stage of life, most of them sought experiences that were laden with sensory stimulation and excitement: exotic dancing, mercenary work. Liara had been an anomaly, isolating herself in academia and remote dig sites, but she seemed to have decided to make up for lost time. It was like watching quicksilver in motion: each move flowing smoothly into another, then another; curves undulating, hips swaying, arms weaving intricate patterns. Liara's eyes were closed, her lips moving ever so slightly as she danced, seemingly oblivious to the presence of her three partners, who were watching her with a mixture of awe and lust as they attempted to match her moves, with very limited success.

As though she could feel Shepard's stare, Liara's head turned, eyes slipping open and locking gazes with the human, and for an endless moment, Casey forgot to breathe. The invitation in those eyes, the entreaty, was clear even from twenty-five feet away.

 _Dance with me._

She'd pushed away from the bar without realizing it, mouth dry and heart pounding, unable to tear her eyes away, ready to stride onto the dance floor and -

 _And what? You can't dance you idiot!_

She fell back a step, mind spinning, saw the unmistakable disappointment in Liara's eyes, and then the asari turned just enough to break eye contact, smiling at one of the boys in a way that sent a white-hot lance of something unpleasant through Shepard's chest.

"You still think she doesn't want you?" The bartender sounded almost amused.

She glanced back at him, too damn confused to be annoyed, saw that he had refilled her water glass and drained it in four swallows, then gritted her teeth, welcoming the stabbing headache until it faded, leaving her thoughts marginally clearer.

"It's never come up before," she muttered, watching the action on the dance floor from the corner of her eye. "She's my best friend. She's never said anything." Had she? The asari had developed a bit of an infatuation after Shepard had rescued her on Therum, but that had faded … hadn't it?

"Sounds like she's been a little busy," the bartender remarked. "War's over now, though. Shepard kicked the Reapers' asses for good. Time to think about something besides fighting, maybe?"

"Maybe," Shepard echoed softly, remembering Liara's words on the ride over. She glanced at him, irritation warring with amusement. "So, do you charge by the hour, doc?"

He grinned at her. "No charge. I've been doing this job for twenty years, seen every story you can name walk through the door, plus a few you've probably never thought of. I can tell you how most of them will end by the time they're walking out the door. If I can give someone a nudge toward what looks like it'll be a happy ending, I do it. Life's too damn short not to, especially these days." He stared past her suddenly, his gaze sharpening. "Trouble," he said in an undertone.

Turning her head, Shepard saw the blonde asshole she had marked earlier bulling his way across the dance floor, face flushed and an ugly look in his eyes.

"Keep the gun out of it." Startled, she looked back at the bartender. "Twenty years, remember?" he reminded her with a thin smile. "I can tell when someone is carrying, and I know damn good and well you can handle that punk without it … Commander."

She paused long enough to give him a nod of acknowledgment, and then she was moving on an intercept course.

"Let me go." Liara sounded more annoyed than alarmed, but the blonde wasn't paying attention, his hand gripping the asari's wrist in a hold that had to be painful. Casey wondered why the hell she wasn't using her biotics; had the alcohol dampened them?

"Think you're too good for me, you alien bitch?" he snarled, trying to drag her away from her three dance partners, who were visibly working themselves up to intervene when Shepard arrived. She didn't waste time talking; a sharp jab to the solar plexus broke his hold on Liara and sent him staggering back, fighting to draw breath. Shepard pushed the asari behind her, eyes dispassionately sizing up attack points. Break the neck, crush the throat, stop the heart with a strike to the chest...

A wall of shadow fell over the scene. "Is this person bothering you, ma'am?"

Shepard looked up. And up. Tate, flanked by two towers of tattooed muscle that had to be squadmates moonlighting with him. She was surprised she hadn't felt the floor shake as they approached.

She gave the blonde a last glance, part of her still hungry for violence. "Yeah," she said at last. "Yeah, he is." That was all it took; the three titans converged on their target and bore him aloft towards the door, followed by the catcalls from the rest of the club's patrons. Tate glanced back once, meeting her eye with a nod that she returned.

 _Semper fi._

A gentle hand on her arm turned her to face Liara. "Thank you for letting the bouncers handle him," the asari said softly.

Casey shrugged. "I might have killed him." Not a threat or a boast; a weary admission that she had left civilian life so far behind that she wasn't sure how to deal with a non-lethal threat. "Not sure why you didn't slap a singularity on his ass," she added.

"That seemed a bit much for the situation," Liara replied. "I knew you'd be coming to my rescue." The words that should have sounded wryly ironic were sincere, and the warmth in the blue eyes made whatever smartass reply Shepard might have delivered evaporate in a sudden rush of heat.

She looked around, her eyes falling on the three would-be Romeos, who were standing and watching as the rest of the dancers on the floor resumed dancing. "If that's the best you can protect her, you can fucking forget about dancing with her," she growled at them.

Liara watched their tail-tucked retreat with amused sympathy. "They were nice enough," she mused, her gaze shifting back to Shepard with a calculating look that made the human's heart rate kick into high gear. "And if you're going to chase off my other partners, does this mean you'll dance with me?" One hand slipped up to the back of Casey's neck, and her hips began to sway again, her eyes staring straight into Shepard's as she danced, her arm maintaining the distance between them, but every movement an invitation to erase it as the strips of leather that made up the upper portion of her dress shifted this way and that, never quite revealing everything, but coming alarmingly close.

"I-" Casey stood helplessly, feeling her brain spontaneously combusting. She'd never understood the bar patrons who sat mesmerized as a dancer writhed in front of them, but she didn't think she could move right now if Harbinger walked through the damn door with a dozen friends. She snapped her eyes shut, discovered the image had seared itself onto her retinas. "Slower," she managed. "Something slower … please?"

She felt Liara still. "Slower sounds very nice," Liara breathed, her fingers whispering along Shepard's neck, then gone. "Don't move, Commander."


	4. Chapter 4

Shepard opened her eyes, watching Liara stroll away, weaving through the bodies in motion until she was lost to sight. Almost immediately, the vapor lock in her brain released, and she began to feel like an ass, standing frozen in the middle of a floor filled with dancers in motion, but she wasn't about to try dancing alone. She glanced back, trying to pick a route back to the bar -

The lights overhead dimmed, casting the dance floor into a play of shadow on shadow as the driving beat was replaced with a different tempo, slow and sensual. The dancers altered their movements accordingly, frenetically moving clusters resolving into close-pressed, slow-swaying silhouettes of couples, and now Casey could see Liara returning, gliding easily through the crowd, her gaze fixed on Shepard.

"You weren't thinking about leaving, were you, Commander?" she asked as she drew close.

"I can't dance, Liara," Shepard offered lamely, not even trying to deny it.

Liara's low laugh chased its way down her spine. "I think you'll be able to manage this," she promised, stepping close and draping her arms over Shepard's shoulders. Casey reached out instinctively, her arms sliding around the asari's waist, hands curled into loose fists because she wasn't quite sure what else to do with them.

If Liara noticed, she gave no sign as she began to move, guiding Shepard into a gently rocking tempo. Slowly, slowly, the awkwardness faded; Casey let her hands splay flat against Liara's back, feeling the heat of her skin, the softness of the leather, the play of lithe muscles as the asari moved against her, the press of breasts and thighs, the slow roll of hips, the soft breath on her neck as Liara rested her head on Shepard's shoulder.

"There," Liara murmured. "Isn't this more fun than sitting at the bar?"

Shepard drew a deep breath, the scent of Liara's perfume surrounding her. "Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?" she asked, only half joking.

Liara drew back enough to look into her eyes. "Maybe I kidnapped her," she suggested, before the playfulness in her gaze gave way to something softer, "or maybe she's right here, where she's been all the time, just waiting for you to see her."

The words were teasing, but the desire in the blue eyes was very real, and more than Shepard could stand. She dipped her head, her mouth brushing against Liara's. Gently at first, then with more pressure, feeling the asari's lips parting, their tongues meeting delicately, the taste of her unbelievably sweet, with the faintest hint of the alcohol -

 _The ryncol._

Shepard froze, then sagged, letting her head drop against Liara's shoulder with a groan. Six goddamn shots of ryncol. Hell, for all she knew, it was an aphrodisiac to asari with krogan genes, but either way, it explained the current situation all too well.

"Shepard?" Liara's worried voice. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Nothing's wrong, Liara," she said. "We just need to get you home and let you sleep this off." And if she was very, very lucky, Liara would remember none of this in the morning. She steeled herself, wondering how it could be so damn hard to let go of someone she'd only just put her arms around. "And you're never allowed to touch ryncol again, by the way," she couldn't help adding.

"Ah, the ryncol." Liara's arms remained around Shepard's neck and her body remained pressed maddeningly close as she brought her lips to the Commander's ear. "Have you by any chance heard of a drug called chlortanothane?" she breathed. "It's used by intelligence agents – including operatives of the Shadow Broker – when gathering information in environments where drinking is part of the cover. It completely neutralizes the effects of all known alcohols … including ryncol."

The words took a moment to penetrate Shepard's self-recriminating haze, but when they did, she jerked her head up, staring at Liara in astonishment. "You're not drunk?" She couldn't decide whether to be angry or relieved.

The asari shook her head, biting her lower lip, mirth warring with worry in her eyes, clearly afraid she'd gone too far, but beneath that the desire was burning every bit as brightly as it had before and no less impossible to resist, and relief won out. Shepard claimed Liara's mouth again, the kiss fierce and hungry, feeling Liara melt against her with a moan, fingers tangling in her hair, ending it only when the need for air forced them up. She rested her forehead against the asari's, breathing hard and heart racing. "Is that what you wanted?"

Liara nodded. "That and more," she whispered breathlessly. "Take me home, Shepard. Please."

* * *

After climbing into the cab, Shepard had barely enough time to give her address to the VI before she found her lap filled with an amorous asari and any further words cut off by a set of very determined lips. Liara straddled her, the almost impossibly high hem of her skirt riding even higher as she squirmed closer still, covering Shepard's face with kisses until Casey managed to guide their lips together. The soft whimpers that Liara was making were turning Shepard's blood to fire; she tipped the asari's head back, trailing open-mouthed kisses along her neck, swirling her tongue against the skin, biting lightly, then sucking, then licking again. Her hands roamed, trying to touch everywhere at once, wanting it all ... right now. A dam that she hadn't even known existed had been breached, and the resulting torrent was sweeping away anything remotely resembling restraint.

"Shepard!" Liara gasped. "Goddess, yes!" Her hand caught Casey's, guiding it down, pushing it beneath the edge of her skirt, then higher, and Shepard's questing fingers encountered -

 _No underwear? Holy shit!_

"Liara!" She jerked her hand back, the fires of lust dampened by the sudden realization that she was about to fuck her best friend in the back of a damned cab. That couldn't be right. "Liara, slow down!"

The asari shook her head. "Don't want to," she murmured, crushing her lips against Shepard's again, the kiss almost desperate as her hands began to work their way under Shepard's skirt.

 _Fuck! Gun!_ She caught the asari's hands as one of them touched the N7 Eagle and jerked them away. Damned if she was going to wind up in the hospital trying to explain how she'd been shot in the unmentionables. Pinning the asari's wrists behind her back, she gave her a shake. "Liara, wait!" she exclaimed, trying to sound like she meant it.

Evidently she succeeded, because Liara gave her a stricken look and sagged in her arms. "I'm sorry, Casey," she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes and spilling onto her cheeks.

 _Aw, crap._ "Liara, it's all right," she murmured, releasing her grip on Liara's wrists, and drawing the asari into a hug, holding tighter as she felt Liara trying to pull away. "Liara, it's all right, just talk to me!" The struggle intensified briefly, then subsided as Liara buried her face against Shepard's shoulder with a sob that tore at Casey's heart. "Talk to me," she repeated softly, her hand rubbing a gentle circle on the asari's back.

"I've made such a fool of myself," Liara said miserably. "I thought that you wanted me -"

"I do." Casey pushed Liara upright, looking earnestly into sad blue eyes. " _God_ , I do." She leaned forward, kissing her gently. "But you deserve -"

"Don't!" Liara shook her head vehemently. "I don't want to be put on a pedestal, Casey. I've been there for years, and I'm tired of it! It's so lonely."

The quiet pain in the words intensified the remorseful ache in Shepard's chest. "How long?" she asked softly, knowing the answer before Liara spoke.

"Since Therum. Since you told the krogan that he couldn't take me," the asari replied. "You didn't even know me, but you were ready to risk your life to protect me. And you kept protecting me. How could I not love you?"

"You never said anything." Shepard felt like an ass. How could she have missed it?

"You were so devoted to your duty," Liara said with a sad smile. "So driven. If there had been someone else, a rival, maybe I would have tried before, but I had no right to distract you from what had to be done. I just thought that with the war over -" She broke off, ducking her head, but Shepard cupped her cheek with a gentle hand.

"More to life than fighting?" she asked softly, echoing Liara's earlier words. "You've never been with anyone else ... have you?" She knew this answer as well before she asked; they had joked together before about their respective lack of social lives.

Liara shook her head. "It's always been you, Casey, but I don't want you to feel that you have to -"

Shepard silenced her with a kiss, slow but deep, keeping her desire on a careful leash, but letting Liara feel it. "Do you trust me?" she asked when they drew apart.

The reply came without hesitation. "With my life."

"Then trust me with this," she urged. "Let me take the lead, set the pace. You won't regret it." She leaned in to steal another kiss, praying she could make good on that promise. She'd never been anyone's first before … hell, her own experience was limited to one-night stands, sex as a physical act, stress relief. Fucking. There'd never been any real emotion tied to it before, but the tenderness she felt gazing into those vulnerable blue eyes was every bit as real as the desire that was still dancing along her nerve endings. "I want you," she whispered fervently, "but I want to make love to you. Will you let me do that, Liara?"

"Yes," Liara replied with a nod, eyes shining, then hesitated, looking suddenly apprehensive. "You … do mean tonight, don't you?"

Casey laughed softly, tightening her embrace. "I'm not sure I'm capable of waiting longer than that," she said, lifting her head for another kiss.


	5. Chapter 5

Shepard's London apartment was nowhere near as luxurious as the place on the Citadel that Anderson had given her, but the damage done when the Crucible had fired had made Sovereign's devastation look small in scale, and most of the reconstruction was focused on the residential sections of the Wards, to help ease the crowding on Earth. The Silversun Strip and other primarily commercial areas would remain low priority until more mass relays were repaired and interstellar traffic picked back up.

Still, being the galaxy's savior did have its perks, so she had managed to score a three-bedroom flat with a fireplace in the living room and a decent-sized hot tub in the master bath. She kept one of the spare bedrooms open for guests, and turned the other into a workout room.

"One question," she said as she opened the front door and stepped aside to let Liara enter. "How long had you been planning this?"

"Casey -" Liara looked embarrassed by the question, so Shepard closed the door, pinned the asari against it and kissed her thoroughly.

"Just curious," she murmured, nuzzling at the spot on Liara's neck, just below her aural folds, that a bit of exploration during the cab ride had revealed as delightfully sensitive.

"That's cheating," Liara accused her, the words trailing off into a moan that rolled down Shepard's spine in a molten wave.

"Is it working?" Shepard breathed, the tip of her tongue making little circles on the blue skin.

"Ye-esss." Liara's arms tightened around Shepard's neck as her legs wavered, and Casey realized that drawing those sweetly tortured sounds from the asari was rapidly becoming her favorite pastime.

Still, she made herself stop. "Tell me?" she asked, drawing back a bit. "Please?"

Crystalline blue eyes watched her solemnly. "In the hospital, after the doctors told us you would survive," she said in a soft voice. "It took more that a week before they would say that much … and before that, it took the search teams two days to find you on the Citadel. I thought I'd lost you – again, and this time, there was no Cerberus willing to bring you back. I told myself that I would tell you how I felt; no more wasting time. I just didn't know how to get you to see me as more than a friend, and when I saw the dancing lessons advertised on the extranet, I thought -" She dropped her gaze, a pretty blush touching her cheeks.

"If that's why you paid for them, you got your money's worth," Shepard murmured wryly, letting her hands slide down Liara's bare arms and lacing their fingers together, stepping back and drawing her further into the apartment. "Be right back," she promised, releasing her hold on Liara's hands and stepping away, glad of the lifetime of military habits that kept her living space neat, as well as the fact that staying in had left her with little to do but clean.

The fireplace held high density ceramic 'logs', with plasma flames to provide light and heat. She'd have preferred real wood and fire, but she had to admit that lighting with the touch of a button was a hell of a lot easier than fumbling with tinder and kindling, and it looked real enough.

"Would you like some wine?" she offered once the fire was going. She preferred beer or tequila, but nobody had bothered telling her numerous well-wishers, and she could have started her own bar with the wine and spirits that had been gifted to her. She'd saved what research suggested were the better vintages, given the rest away, and still most of her cupboard space was taken up by booze. Might as well put it to good use, right?

"I doubt the chlortanothane has worn off yet," Liara admitted, looking a bit puzzled, "and at any rate, you hardly need to get me drunk."

She paused on her way into the kitchen to glance back at Liara, feeling a familiar wave of affection temporarily stilling her rising nerves. Yes, that was the Liara T'Soni that she knew. "I'm pretty sure that a Thessian red 2113 isn't for getting drunk on, Liara," she said, peering at the label. "Councilor Tevos seemed to consider it a good vintage, anyway."

"Ah." Liara shuffled her feet awkwardly, sinking to the couch with her hands folded in her lap. "In that case, a glass would be welcome."

"Corkscrew ... corkscrew ..." Shepard muttered under her breath, rummaging through drawers in search of the utensil. She had one; she knew she did. She pulled it triumphantly from a tangle of items that she couldn't identify (her cooking skills started and stopped at heating up takeout), then eyed the contraption dubiously. She could probably kill someone with it in a pinch, but - "Ummm … you know how to use a corkscrew?"

"Yes." Liara entered the kitchen, watching her with guarded amusement. "I suppose I should be glad that you didn't just shoot the top off the bottle," she remarked, accepting bottle and corkscrew from Shepard.

 _Oh, yeah … the gun._ How the hell long had it been since she had _forgotten_ she was carrying? Answer: fucking never. Until now. "Um … speaking of that, I'm just gonna go … disarm," Casey stammered, ducking into the hallway and burying her face in her palm with a silent groan. _Smooth, Shepard. Real smooth._

In her bedroom, she quickly shed the Eagle and its holster - "Chafe-free, my ass," she muttered as she stowed both in her nightstand, dropping the necklace on top of them, then turned away quickly. The words 'Liara' and 'bed' trying to align in her brain were threatening to cause another vapor lock. Kissing the asari had been almost too easy; _thinking_ about kissing her - or what could happen beyond that - was doing things to her nerves that the Reapers hadn't come close to.

Music. Music would be good, and the apartment had a great sound system. She went to the control panel in the hall, hit the power button and nearly jumped out of her skin as loud music blasted from every one of the twenty-three speakers positioned throughout the apartment. A startled cry and the clatter of glass from the direction of the kitchen indicated that the speakers in there were working just fine.

"Sorry." She hurriedly adjusted the volume, switched to a different playlist, then peered sheepishly into the kitchen. "Vega and Cortez were over this weekend for the game."

Liara sighed as she wiped up most of a five-hundred credit bottle of wine from the kitchen floor. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, Casey," she murmured, standing and dropping the stained rag into the sink. "I should go -"

"No!" Shepard caught Liara's hands, tugging her from the kitchen back into the living room, to the small expanse of floor between the couch and the fireplace. "I don't want you to go. Just … dance with me. Please?" She'd at least managed to prove she could do that without making too much of a fool of herself.

Liara hesitated, then nodded, letting Casey draw her close and slipping her arms around the human's neck. "This was easier when I was pretending to be drunk," she admitted with the tiniest tremor audible in her voice. "I don't want to do anything to hurt our friendship, Casey."

"Neither do I," Shepard agreed, "but I don't think that going back is an option." Not when every curve of the asari's body fit to hers so sweetly; not when the feel of Liara in her arms, swaying gently to the slow music, was beyond incredible.

Liara pressed her face into Shepard's shoulder. "Goddess, tell me I haven't ruined everything," she pleaded.

"You haven't," Casey told her, drawing one of her hands down, "but there's a middle ground between jumping you in the back of a cab and calling the whole thing off, isn't there?" She placed a soft kiss in the middle of the palm, then on the wrist, feeling Liara shiver in response. "I mean, unless you're only interested in the sex." She'd never really done a friends-with-benefits thing, but for Liara, she'd try.

The asari tipped her head up, giving the human a reproving look. "I would hope that you knew me better than that, Casey."

"So would I," Shepard replied with a smile, "but you've handed me a few surprises in the last couple of hours."

Liara nodded, leaning back into her. "I never really thought past seducing you," she admitted in a small voice. "That's not like me at all. How could I be so -"

"Hssh," Shepard soothed her. This Liara, awkward and over-analyzing, was familiar and easier to deal with than the seductress that she'd spent the first part of the evening with, but that chaotic couple of hours, confusing though it had been, had opened her eyes to something she'd never considered. "It's all right," she breathed, brushing her lips along the line of Liara's jaw. "I'm not going anywhere," she promised, her mouth finding the aural folds of the crest, letting the tip of her tongue trace the contours.

Liara gasped, hips pressing hard into her. "Casey, the crest region can be … very sensitive."

Shepard managed a chuckle; the asari's response had her pulse pounding, need rising, but she forced herself to draw back again. "Yes, I seem to remember hearing something about that."

"You've -" She could feel Liara hesitating. "You've never been with an asari before?"

"Nope," Casey replied. "You're my first." She couldn't resist nuzzling at the aural folds once more before adding, "How am I doing?"

" _Very_ well." Liara's voice was thick with desire, and on the heels of her words came the feel of her lips against Shepard's throat, the velvet sweep of a tongue on skin. "And how am I doing?" she whispered coyly.

"Fantastic," Casey groaned, dropping her hands to the curve of Liara's ass and squeezing, all too aware that the hem of the asari's dress was only a few inches below her fingers, and that Liara was bare beneath it. _Slowly, damn it._ She brought her hands back to Liara's waist and captured her mouth, tongue easily sliding past the asari's lips and stroking into her mouth.

"Then why are we still standing?" Liara wanted to know as she pulled her mouth away from Shepard's and latched onto her earlobe, nibbling and sucking.


	6. Chapter 6

"Tired of dancing already?" Casey teased, sliding her hands back down to Liara's thighs and lifting. The asari gave a squeak of surprise, arms locking around Shepard's neck and legs wrapping around the soldier's waist. _Holy crap._ "Better?" she managed, her voice only slightly unsteady as she grinned up into wide blue eyes.

Liara recovered quickly. "It's a start," she purred, letting her fingers tangle in Casey's hair and bringing their lips together once more. Her petite frame was easy to bear, and the tight clasp of her legs freed up the Spectre's hands for more interesting pursuits … like finding out just how sensitive an asari's crest really was. As they kissed, she let her fingertips follow the curves from the temple back; they were firm, yet slightly flexible, like cartilage, the skin warm and soft … and yes, quite sensitive, if the sudden quickening of Liara's breath was any indication. Her thumbs toyed with the tips, then swept beneath to explore the soft ridges extending from the base of the skull down the back of the neck.

"Oh!" Liara gasped into Shepard's mouth, her legs scissoring even more tightly over the human's hips, and when Casey's thumbs continued to circle and stroke, she began to squirm frantically, her grip on the red hair tightening to just shy of painful as her tongue sparred fiercely with Shepard's. For her own part, Shepard was feeling rather pleased with her discovery, since she'd had exactly no time to do any research on asari erogenous zones. Pinning Liara on her belly and finding out if she could make her come with nothing more than a relentless assault on this spot was added to the mental to-do list, but other issues currently held a higher priority. The dress that had, only an hour before, seemed almost scandalously revealing now wasn't exposing nearly enough.

She made it to the sofa, hearing Liara's shoes clattering to the floor behind her as she lowered the asari to the cushions, letting the press of her weight still the squirming as she deepened the kiss until Liara surrendered with a shuddering moan. Her tongue stroked boldly into Liara's mouth, her hips already beginning to rock in a matching cadence, framed so sweetly by bare thighs. The skirt had been pushed up to Liara's hips, and the disappointed sound that the asari made when Casey's thumbs left off their attentions to her crest changed to an approving hum as her hands dipped lower on her back, finding the fastenings that were keeping the upper portions of the dress in place.

She broke the kiss reluctantly, raising up slightly as she drew the tangle of leather strips downward. A brief search and fumble when everything had been gathered at waist level, followed by an equally brief and frantic shifting of hips, and the dress slipped to the floor beside the sofa, leaving Casey Shepard stretched out on top of a very naked asari.

The urge to pounce, to claim, was strong, but Casey restrained herself, letting her eyes explore as her hands began their return journey from the waist region. The blue skin beneath her fingers was warm, completely hairless, and so very, very smooth and soft. She stroked her thumbs upward from pubic bone to navel, entranced by the feel, lifted her gaze higher: past the swell of perfect breasts; the slender column of the neck; the lips left swollen and moist from their kiss, parted and panting; the nose with its dusting of darker blue freckles to blue eyes hazed with arousal.

"Beautiful girl," she breathed, wondering how in the hell she could have missed it for so long. Liara had been both formidable ally and trusted friend. Cerberus might have brought Shepard back from the dead, but it had been Liara's guts, determination and devotion that had made it possible. Through their melds, the asari knew her better than anyone else in the galaxy, and had still managed for so long to keep her own emotions hidden, overlooked.

Liara met her gaze, looking almost shy at finding herself the object of such rapt attention, gasped when the upward glide of Casey's hands reached her breasts. She arched up into the contact, but Casey took her time, feather-light touches circling inward, working the soft mounds with her palms as thumbs and forefingers teased cerulean-hued nipples, observing in satisfaction as the brief self-consciousness melted back into hazy-eyed pleasure. She dipped her head, letting her tongue flick against one taut peak, then another, her eyes turned upward, watching as Liara's head tipped back, listening to the breathless little cries that escaped her parted lips.

The lips proved entirely too alluring, and Casey moved back up to claim them again, feeling Liara's hands moving over her own body, uncertain but urgent.

"Side," she broke the kiss long enough to grunt when she felt fingers tugging at the back of her dress. Kasumi had known better than to get her a dress that she couldn't get into and out of on her own. A bit more fumbling and squirming was required before the little black dress was pitched unceremoniously over the back of the sofa, but it was totally worth it, because now there was nothing but the erotic slide of skin on skin, and Casey took full advantage, exploring her lover's body with hands and mouth until Liara was writhing beneath her, gasping and whimpering.

"Casey … Casey, please … I need ..."

"This?" Shepard let the hand that had been tracing patterns over the asari's belly slip downward, brushing lightly over the outer folds of her sex. She smiled as she felt Liara draw a sharp breath, hips twitching, and pressed deeper, fingertips parting the soft petals, feeling the wetness smoothing the way as she stroked up and down.

"Yes!" Liara moaned. "Oh, yes! _Oh_!" Casey dipped two fingers into a velvet heat that clenched around her, and the asari's hips rose reflexively, trying to take her still deeper.

"Any pain?" Shepard asked as she withdrew and pressed in again with exquisite care.

Liara shook her head, biting at her lower lip. "No! So … so good!"

The words and the wanton look on Liara's face stirred something hot and hungry and utterly primal in Shepard. "Good," she rumbled, shifting so that her hips settled firmly between Liara's legs and rocking in time with the motion of her wrist, each thrust pressing her fingers in slow and deep, watching mesmerized as Liara rose to meet her again and again. Faster, harder, and Casey could feel her control skating on a razor's edge. None of her casual bedmates had ever come close to arousing her like this, but she desperately wanted to make Liara come before she did.

Her mouth found Liara's throat, kissing a trail along the line of the asari's racing pulse: lips brushing, teeth nipping, tongue sweeping over the soft skin. At the same time, her free hand returned to the back of Liara's neck, fingertips dancing over the sensitive ridges. The combined effect was electric: Liara cried out, arms and legs tightening around Casey, clinging to her as the movement of her hips intensified.

"Casey -"

The entreaty in Liara's voice was enough to bring Shepard's head up to find blue eyes darkening to black.

"Please?"

"Not yet." Casey shook her head. Joining their minds had always been draining on Liara, and she didn't want her lover exhausted just yet. "Not yet, baby. I want to make you come first." She thrust deep, curled her fingers, felt Liara stiffen against her. "Come for me, beautiful girl," she urged in a husky whisper.

"Yes!" Liara surged against her, the rhythm of her hips breaking up into a frenzied bucking. "Casey, goddess, yes! I love you!"

The impassioned words finished the fraying remnants of Casey's control. She slanted her mouth over Liara's, capturing the asari's cries, drinking them in greedily as their bodies came together fast and frantic. She kept thrusting, feeling her own release roll through her as she pushed Liara higher, prolonging the pleasure until she felt the asari's body give a final shudder. She slowed then, easing them both back down, feeling pleasantly drained as she relaxed against Liara, still inside her, delicate aftershocks chasing along her fingers.

"I love you, too," she murmured at last, nuzzling into Liara's neck.

She felt the change in the asari's breathing a moment before Liara spoke.

"Casey," she began slowly, "you don't have to say that just because -"

"Hey." Shepard lifted her head, looking directly into Liara's eyes. "I've never lied to you before, and I'm sure not gonna start now." She kissed her, gentle and slow, turning up the heat as she felt Liara responding, lips parting, tongue meeting hers. Desire flared anew, and her hips rocked in response, drawing another of those breathless little sounds from Liara that rolled down her spine like lava. "I love you," she whispered, pulling her lips away from Liara's and kissing along the line of her jaw to her ear, teasing at the aural folds with her tongue. "I love you, and _God_ , I want you!"

She felt the asari's inner walls tighten around her fingers at the words, felt Liara's hips lifting in response. She drew out slowly, pressed in again, slow and deep, more than ready to begin again. She'd loved Liara as a friend for years; that particular tenderness seemed much as it always had been, but the desire – hell, the _lust_ – was something entirely new. Or was it? While the feeling was nothing she'd been consciously aware of, it was certainly doing a good impression of a need too long denied. She wanted to spend the entire night making Liara come, hearing her lover call out her name, laying claim to every inch of that beautiful blue skin.

 _Mine._ The thought, both wondering and hotly possessive, triggered another surge of desire, and she bit lightly at her lover's neck, teeth grazing over the skin, guiding her into a slow cadence, hips flexing and relaxing, fingers pressing shallow, then deep. Taking her time.

"I just -" Liara was panting, fingers digging into Shepard's shoulders. Realizing that the asari was trying to communicate something of import, Casey stilled, watching her attentively. "I just thought when you didn't want to meld -"

Casey silenced her with another kiss. "I said not yet," she reminded her when they came back up for air. "I didn't want to have to have Karin make a house call." Blue eyes stared at her uncomprehendingly, and she went on, "Whenever we join minds, it always seems harder on you." The asari had almost fainted on more than one occasion, though perhaps that had been due to the intensity of the visions from the prothean beacons and the cipher.

Understanding smoothed the lovely features, and Liara laughed softly. "Casey, our melds were draining for me because I had to keep a part of my mind closed to you, to hide my feelings."

"Oh." Shepard felt a twinge of reflexive guilt, wondering how in the hell she could not have known. God, they could have been doing this all along! "No reason to wait, then, is there?" she asked, cupping the swell of a breast with her free hand, watching the pleasure ripple across her lover's face. She had so very much lost time to make up.

"No," Liara breathed, "there isn't." Her fingers tangled in Casey's hair, pulling the commander into another kiss. Shepard wondered briefly why she hadn't initiated the meld, but a sweetly darting tongue and the feel of legs tightening around her waist, ankles locking together over her spine, drove any such ponderings out of her mind. It wasn't as though she had nothing to do while she was waiting, after all.

She returned to her exploration of the similarities and differences. Nibbling along the curve of a collarbone earned a series of delightful little gasps, and when she nuzzled the hollow at the base of Liara's throat, the asari tipped her head back with a soft moan.

She could feel Liara's hands moving over her skin, eager but uncertain. Catching one, she brought it to her breast, groaning at the sensation.

"Am I doing it right?" Liara asked anxiously as her fingers circled the edge of the nipple.

"Don't think there's a wrong way," Shepard managed, holding herself up, drawing a breath through clenched teeth and shutting her eyes at the feel of Liara tweaking the nipple, tugging it gently. A sudden shift of the body beneath her, and then _heat_ -

She gasped, eyes flying open to stare down at her lover, whose mouth was on her breast and whose gaze was turned upward, watching her with a mix of innocent curiosity and smoldering desire that was adorable and sexy and utterly, completely Liara.

"Definitely doing it right," she growled, ignoring the burn in her wrist as she thrust again, determined to take it slow, give Liara the chance to explore, almost losing her resolve when the asari's hand dipped between her legs and open-mouthed kisses trailed over her chest and up her neck.

"Ye-ess!" she hissed as slim fingers brushed experimentally over the damp curls, then pressed carefully inward to mirror her touch. Her supporting arm wavered, and she gave it up, sinking down and letting her free hand return to the back of Liara's neck, pulling her into another kiss as their bodies moved together in an unhurried rhythm, pleasure building slowly.

"Casey." She could feel Liara's breath on her skin when they drew apart ever so slightly, knew even before she met the asari's eyes that they would have begun the shift to ebony. "Now?"

She nodded, resting her forehead against Liara's, still rocking ever so slowly, feeling fingers sliding up the back of her neck into her hair. "Yes."

"Embrace eternity," Liara breathed, the darkness expanding, filling her eyes. Casey relaxed, letting herself be drawn into the velvet night of those eyes. She had joined her mind to Liara's before, when the asari had been attempting to help her make sense of the visions from the prothean beacons, but she had always been passive, and the link, while undeniably profound, had nonetheless been limited, shallow.

 _God_ , was this different.

Her mind fumbled instinctively for comparisons: flying, floating, immersion...only to reject them all as woefully inadequate and finally simply surrendered and _felt_.

Felt the fusion as their lips met. Tasted her mouth, Liara's mouth. Felt their tongues dancing, the heat of their mingled breath.

Felt the fingers … Hers? Liara's? Filling? Being filled? She couldn't separate it as the sensations echoed between them with each movement, growing rather than fading with each resonance.

Felt Liara's trepidation give way to a tremulous joy as their minds touched, the edges blurring, then fading altogether. Felt Liara still holding back, even as she allowed herself to be laid bare. Felt the fear as she pushed forward, testing the bond between them.

 _Beautiful girl._ She poured heart and soul into the thought, wrapping it tenderly around her lover. _Show me. Please._

Hesitation. Reluctance, then fearful acquiescence and the feeling of being drawn deeper. Echoes from the past: loneliness and resignation; acceptance, then a searing grief and the image of a charred and twisted shape. Shepard didn't flinch; she'd seen the pictures.

 _It's over. I'm here. I'm alive because of you._

A new sliver of fear at that thought, and Casey pressed forward again, tasting weeks of despair and sorrow, grim determination, bittersweet triumph, and then, a deep and dark hole of nothing, stumbling forward, afraid to hope, fueled by guilt and revenge.

Joy at the sight of a beloved face, resigned sorrow as she was rejected.

 _I'm sorry._ Casey had known nothing of what Liara had done to save her, nothing of what she had been through. She'd found her best friend changed almost beyond recognition and refusing to return to the Normandy with her. Hurting, angry and confused, she'd come damn close to simply walking away and not looking back.

 _I wanted to join you._ Liara, guilt and pain saturating the thought, even now. _I wanted to so much, but -_

 _I know._ Casey drew her lover in, letting the asari feel the forgiveness, the remorse. _It's over now, beautiful girl. That's all in the past. I'm here now._

 _Yes._ Liara burrowed closer, letting her in deeper, the images underlying the emotions paralleling Shepard's memories now: the yahg dead, Feron alive, the choice to become the Shadow Broker, fresh pain as duty parted them again, Feron's hesitant advances, the loneliness that almost made her -

 _Hsssh._ Casey soothed her as she felt Liara start to cringe away in dismay. _It's all right._ She'd always liked Feron, had actually thought that he and Liara might wind up together, but that was before tonight. She knew that nothing had happened, that the asari had gently rejected his courtship, but that didn't stop another surge of possessiveness, and she let it flow through the strengthening bond, let Liara feel how very much she wanted her, loved her … and only her.

 _I am yours._ The thought, more emotion than words, borne on a rising swell of pleasure as the last of the walls between them fell away, shared sensation and shared emotion swirling together into a heady mix. _I've always been yours, Casey._

 _I'm yours,_ Casey managed, and then the meld was complete and there was only _them_ , and God, _this_ was eternity, this was infinity, the number 8 rocked onto its side, curving gently with no beginning, no end, only _them_ , and she couldn't tell where she stopped and Liara began, didn't care, because this was all that mattered, _they_ were all that mattered.

 _Love you._ Immutable truth, flowing around them, through them. _Loveyouloveyouloveyou..._

Need and desire flared incandescent, and they tumbled together into eternity.


	7. Chapter 7

When Casey woke, it was the first time in three days that she had done so without Liara cuddled against her like a blue-skinned kitten. Once they had finally made it to the bedroom, they'd barely left, save for a couple of extended soaks in the hot tub, which had proven perfectly sized for two, and trips to the front door (temporarily clothed) to accept delivery of whatever takeout food had sounded good at the moment.

She rolled over, burying her face in Liara's pillow, breathing deeply of the scent that had infused itself into her consciousness, bringing with it memories of soft skin, hungry kisses, breathless cries. The inexperienced asari had been eager to learn, passionate and insatiable; they'd done little in the previous days but make love and cuddle, with occasional breaks for eating and sleeping, and the feel of her lover in her arms was something that had become an addiction with amazing speed.

Casey slipped out of bed and padded out of the bedroom. They'd spent more time melded than not, and a connection lingered, a gentle tug in her mind drawing her toward what had become her true north as surely as a lodestone. Entering the living room, she was treated to the welcome sight of a pair of shapely blue legs extending from beneath the hem of her N7 hoodie. Liara was looking out the living room window, her back to Shepard, and the warm glow of contentment had been muted by a discordant thrum of melancholy and worry that she was trying to suppress.

Crossing the room, she wrapped her arms around Liara's waist, drawing them together. "Good morning, beautiful girl," she murmured into the asari's ear, kissing the side of her neck.

"Good morning." Casey could feel the flush of pleasure at her words as Liara melted back against her, the slow burn of desire beginning to kindle anew, though not enough to dispel her lover's malaise.

"Thinking about Thessia?" Diana Allers had broadcast a special report last night about the rebuilding efforts on the asari homeworld. The devastation that the reapers had wrought upon cities thousands of years in the building had been massive, the cost in lives still not fully tallied. The scenes there were not so very different from those on Earth, Palaven or any number of other worlds in the galaxy, but the irony of such a violent fate befalling the race known as the diplomats of Citadel space, a culture that had grown beyond internal wars centuries ago, gave the scenes of destruction an added poignancy to Casey. For Liara, the impact had been deeper and far more personal.

"Yes," she admitted softly, her eyes on the reconstruction that was visible virtually wherever you looked, new buildings being raised to replace the ones that had been reduced to rubble in the final battle. "When the relays were down, I just didn't let myself think about it, but now -" She turned, pressing her face into Shepard's neck. "Casey, that's my home, my people."

"I know." Shepard held her gently, stroking her crest. The crest region _was_ sensitive – and yes, proper stimulation of the region could indeed provoke a very satisfying orgasm – but Casey had discovered that _how_ you touched played a big part in the response...the right pressure could soothe, rather than arouse. "And given your part in destroying the reapers, I'd imagine that your presence would be a big boost to morale."

Instead of easing, the distress in Liara's mind deepened. "I don't want to leave you," she protested, snuggling even closer. "Not so soon."

Casey was genuinely puzzled. "Why would you need to?"

Liara tipped her head back, surprise and hope touching her thoughts. "Casey, I can't ask you to leave your home -"

"It's not my home," Casey told her, shaking her head. "I was a spacer brat. Never even set foot on Earth until I started my military training. It's not that I don't care, but I think I've given humanity – hell, the galaxy – enough of me." She slipped a hand beneath Liara's chin, her thumb tracing the line of her jaw. "You're my home now," she said softly. Her world had been turned on its axis, but for the first time since she had regained consciousness in the hospital, she didn't feel adrift, bereft of purpose. She'd lived for duty for so long, devoted herself to it with single-minded purpose; she'd never lived for another person before, but if the way she was feeling was any indication, it beat the hell out of duty as a reason for getting out of bed in the morning.

Or maybe going back to bed. Liara's eyes had softened with adoration, and joy bubbled through the connection between them in the instant before fingers curved around the back of her neck, pulling her down into a kiss. She growled her approval, one hand sliding down to lift a leg, guiding it around her waist, while her fingers found the zipper of the hoodie and started tugging it downward.

"Casey … the window -" the protest was decidedly halfhearted, and trailed off into a moan when Shepard's hand slipped beneath the fabric to cup a breast.

"It's coated," Shepard mumbled, nibbling at the swell of Liara's lower lip before angling toward her neck. "Can't see in." But she guided Liara in a sidestep until she could pin her against the wall beside the window. "Better?" she breathed, letting the tips of her fingers brush lightly over the wet petals of the asari's sex, feeling her lover shiver in response.

"Yesss." Eyes deepening to ebony met hers, arousal flaring white hot between them, and she knew they weren't going to be making it back to the bedroom just yet.

"Now, Casey." Entreaty or order … it didn't really matter, and if Liara ever told her to jump off a cliff or kill someone in that hungry, take-me-right-here voice, she was going to be in trouble. She sank to her knees, pushing the hoodie away as she kissed a slow path over soft skin, feeling Liara's fingers tangling in her hair, gripping her shoulder, urging her onward as surely as the need that was pulsing through the deepening meld.

 _yesyesyesyesyes_

She paused, lifting Liara's leg over her shoulder, turning her head to brush her lips along the inner thigh, feeling echoes of the sensation, and the pleasure it incited, swirling beneath her own skin. She glanced upward; Liara's eyes were closed, her head tipped back and lips parted in anticipation. Casey leaned forward, drawing the tip of her tongue lightly over the folds, groaning at the sudden flood of pure want from her lover.

 _Pleasepleasepleaseplease_

Shepard could deny her beautiful girl nothing. She pressed further, slow licks alternating with flickering touches, one steadying hand at her lover's hip as she slipped two fingers into velvet-soft heat. Liara whimpered, hips rocking to take her deeper, and Casey adjusted her pace to meet her lover's impatience, giving her what she wanted. The meld was complete, nothing between them now, every touch, every thrust and counterthrust shared, amplified. Love, desire, joy, arousal; all of it storming between them, through them, colliding with physical sensation to create an incendiary mixture of passion that consumed them both.

Casey caught Liara as she sank, guiding her downward, their lips coming together as their minds began to separate, the shared taste of the asari on their tongues filtering through the fading bond. The remaining connection, faint in comparison to the fusion that it had been moments before, still felt stronger than it had been before they had melded.

 _Will it just keep getting stronger?_ It took a moment for Casey to realize that she hadn't spoken aloud, another moment to realize that Liara had 'heard' her.

 _To a point,_ the asari replied, sapphire eyes watching her face, elation blossoming when she felt Casey's reception of the thought. "It will never be as strong as an actual meld," she said aloud, "but some bondmates can sense each other's thoughts and emotions even over a considerable distance."

Bondmate. The word had not been spoken before this point by either of them, but it fit in the same way that Liara's body fit to hers, like a missing part that she hadn't realized wasn't there until she found it. There was no doubt, no hesitation; their strongest melds had occurred in between the lovemaking, curled together, minds joined and eternity flowing through them in a deep and sacred silence in which nothing was hidden.

"When did you want to leave for Thessia?" she asked, fingertips lazily tracing the contours of Liara's crest while her lips brushed soft kisses along her neck and shoulders. It wasn't a deliberate ploy; touching her lover seemed almost as instinctive as breathing now, but she could feel Liara responding to the contact.

"I think -" Liara turned her head, bringing their lips into contact, the kiss so damn sweet that Shepard all but forgot her question. "I think that tomorrow will be soon enough to begin preparations," the asari breathed when they parted, coming to her feet easily and taking Shepard's hands in her own.

The commander allowed herself to be drawn upright. "I'd like to take you dancing again," she said, before she lost her nerve, "before we go. Same place." Her lack of skill be damned; she wanted to let that bartender know he'd been right and give him the best tip of his career. She wanted the world – the whole damn galaxy – to know that this beautiful girl was hers. _Hers._ And she wanted her beautiful girl to know it, too.

Liara's eyes dilated, breath quickening as Casey allowed her fiercely possessive emotions to flow unchecked through the bond. "I would like that," she said softly, maintaining her hold on Shepard's hands and tugging her toward the bedroom. "Just not today."

"No," Casey agreed, following willingly in her footsteps. "Definitely not today."

* * *

 ** _And done! Thanks for reading!_**


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